Wire-cutter



(No Model.)

P. W. CLARK.

WIRE CUTTER. No. 380,618. Patented Apr. 3, 1888.

lNVENTElFkIi N. PETERS. Phnlo-Lxumgnuhn. Wall'dngion. u. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT arcs.

PHINEAS WARREN CLARK, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

WIRE-CUTTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 380,618, dated April 3, 1888.

Application filed February 3, 1888. Serial No. 262,898. No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PHINEAS WARREN CLARK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in W'ire- Gutters Especially Intended for Use in Machines for Making Card-Clothing, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its especial object to more perfectly than has hitherto been customary guide the fly-cutter of card-clothing-setting machines, and is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan showing a portion of the fly-cutter of a card-clothing-setting machine and the fluted cylinder with the adjustable fly-cutter guide attached thereto, said fluted cylinder being shown as supported in the flutedcylinder holder. Fig. 2 is an elevation showing the right-haud end of the device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section at the line a. a of Fig. 2 of the fluted cylinder and the adjustable fly-cutter guide. Fig. 4 is a plan of the fluted-cylinder holder. Fig. 5 is an elevation showing thcleft-hand end of theflutedcylinder holder shown in Figs. 1 and 4, and Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section at the line b b of Fig. 5 of said fluted-cylinder holder.

Similar reference-numbers refer to the same parts in all of the views.

In the drawings, 1 represents a portion of the fly-cutter, which is a flexible piece of steel, the end of which is made very hard, indeed, and is ground to a sharp edge, which serves to cut off sections of the wire 2. The wire 2 is presented to the action of the fiy-cutter 1 by the wire-cutting guide, which consists of the fluted wire-cutting cylinder 3 and the flycutter guide 9, that is attached thereto, as shown. The cylinder 3 is provided with the longitudinal grooves 4. and preferably, but not necessarily, at the cutting end with the cavity 5, which allows of a more ready clearance of the severed section of the wire than would otherwise be possible. The cavity 5 is shown as a conical hole with a cylindrical extension; but it may be made of any convenient shape. The grooves at are preferably made with around bottom in order that the wire 2 may be more cleanly out than would otherwise be the case, and the cutting end of the cylinder 3 should he made very hard. The depth of the grooves 4. should be such that when the fly-cutter guide 9 is placed upon the cylinder 3 a hole will be left between the guide 9 and cylinder 3 at each groove, as shown in Fig. 2, which is of a size to allow the wire 2 to pass easily through it.

In order that the wire 2 may be exactly and securely held in the proper position, the adjust-able fly-cut-ter guide 9 is attached to the end of the fluted cylinder 3 by means of the set-screw 10 or other equivalent means, thus forming the wire-cutting guide.

The fly-cutter guide 9 is sometimes held in place upon the cylinder 3 by making its central cylindrical hole very slightlysmaller than the diameter of said cylinder, warming the guide until said hole is larger than said cylinder, and then placing it in its place on said cylinder and allowing it to shrink into contact therewith. This method is adopted only occasionally, as the method of fastening the fly cutter guide to the cylinder 3' by the use of a set-screw is usually more advantageous. fly-cutter guide is shown as a short right cyl- The inder with a central cylindrical hole, and, al-

though this particular shape is not absolutely necessary, it is considered to be the most de sirable one. This guide 9 and the holder 6 are preferably made very hard indeed.

The guide 9 being fixed to the cutting end of the cylinder 3 with said cutting end slightly protruding through said guide, the end of the cylinder and the face of the guide are ground to one surface, preferably by placing said cylinder in the holder 6 or other device in which it may freely turn and holding it in contact with a revolving grinder by which it is ground until the face of the guide 9 coincides with the end of the cylinder 3 and forms a surface of revolution about the axis of said cylinder. The cylinder 3 and guide 9 should rotate during the operation of grinding, and said rotation may be easily set up by holding the axis of the cylinder 3 at a very slight angle to the perpendicular to the surface of a cylindrical grinder, and in a plane containing the axis thereof, by means of the holder 6 or other suitable support for said cylinder. The holder 6 is preferably provided with a central cylindrical hole whose diameter is such that the 'fluted cylinder 3 may turn easily therein, and

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the holderl6 is placed in the usual and proper position in the card-clothing-setting machine and properly adjusted, being held to its place in said machine in the usual way by a setscrew passing through the slot in the ear 7 or by other equivalent means. The cylinder 3 is then placed in said holder and properly adjusted circumferentially and clamped in the holder 6 by the set-screw 8 or other equivalent means, the guide 9 being pressed against the end of the holder .6. The holder 6 is provided, as usual, with the entering groove 11, and when the cylinder 3 is properly adjusted a groove, 4, is placed in communication with said groove 11 in such a position that it readily receives a wire that is inserted in said groove 11, which acts somewhat like a tunnel to lead the wire to the groove 4.

Since the fly-cutter 1, which is held by an elastic pressure against the face of the guide 9 and moves as is indicated by the dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 2, and cuts off a section of wire at every forward stroke, makes several thousand cuts per hour, and since the wire 2 is usually somewhat hard, it is found that the cutting-edge of the fly-cutter and the opposing edge of a groove of the fluted cylinder quickly become worn. The fly-cutter is usually slightly changed in its position at intervals, usually once a day, to bring a new portion of its edge into action, while the fluted cylinder when worn is rotated slightly and a new groove brought into action, usually at intervals of about two days, the set-screw 8 being loosened until the cylinder has been properly adjusted, when it is again tightened, thus securing the cylinder in its place. WVhen the entire edge of the fly-cutter has been dulled, it is removed and sharpened, and when all the grooves of the cylinder 3 have become dulled the cylinder is removed from the holder and the setscrew 10 loosened and the cylinder driven slightly through the guide 9, after which the set-screw 10 is again tightened and the end of the cylinder again ground off until its-surface coincides with that of the guide 9, as at first.

WVire-cutters resembling the one illustrated have been long used where the guide 9 was formed integrally with the holder 6; butit was practically impossible to so grind the cutting end of the fluted cylinder and the face of the guide that when it was necessary to bring a new groove into action the cylinder could be so adjusted as to give exactly the same length of wire as before, and to bring the cylinder into the same relation with the fly-cutter as before. It was frequentlynecessary, on account of' this difliculty, to bring a new groove into action in two hours after the previous one had been first adjusted, the cutting-edge of the groove becoming worn out in that time. The variation of the length of the wire cutoff was a very serious difficulty, as the quality of the card clothing was much injured thereby. These difficulties are obviated by making the device as herein described, as the new device once adjusted will always give the same length of wire whatever groove be used, and the cutting-edge of every groove will be presented to the fly-cutter in the same way. On account of the great accuracy attainable in the adjustment of this wirecutter, it has been found possible to properly grind a card clothed with the clothing made with the aid of this cutter in less than one-half the time that was usually necessaryto be used for grinding the clothing made when using the older form of cutter herein described. This superiority of the card-clothing is undoubtedly due toa large extent to the greater smoothness of the cut ends of the wire, attainable by the use of the improved cutter, and to some extent to the great number of sections of wire which may be cut off of uniform length.

The means for actuating the fly-cutter and for controlling the wire 2, both before and after it is cut, being well known to skillful makers of card-clothing, as well as the method of attaching the fluted-cylinder holder to the card-clothing-setting machine, need no description here, as they are not claimed to be of my invention.

I sometimes desire to sell the wire-cutting guide, which is formed by the fluted cylinder 3 and the fly-cutter guide 9, without the rest of the device, since this guide will wear outin a comparatively short time, while the holder 6 is much more durable.

What I herein claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, with the fluted-cylinder holder adapted to be attached to a cardclothing-setting machine, of the fluted cylinder and means for clamping the same within said holder, the fly-cutter guide, and a clamping means whereby said guide is adjnstably fixed upon the end of said fluted cylinder, substantially as described,and for the purposes specified.

2. The combination, with the fluted cylinder holder adapted to be attached to a cardelothing-setting machine, of the fluted cylinder provided with a cavity in its cutting end, meansfor clamping said cylinder within said holder, the fly-cutter guide, and a clamping means whereby said guide is adj ustably fixed upon the end of said fluted cylinder, substantially as described, and for the purposes specified.

3. The wire-cutting guide for use in cutting and guiding the wire in card-clothing-setting machines, which consists of the fluted cylinder and the fly-cutter guide fixed upon the end thereof, the end of said cylinder and the face of said guide forming a surface of revolution about the axis of said cylinder, substantially as described, and for the purposes specified.

PHINEAS W ARREN CLARK. Witnesses:

O. G. KIMBALL, CHARLES H. FIsHER.

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